Book Review: You've Come A Long Way Baby

Book: You've Come A Long Way Baby
Genre: Non-Fiction, Women Studies
Published: 2010
How I Got the Book: for a class

Synopsis (from b&n.com): No matter what brand of feminism one may subscribe to, be it first wave, second wave, third wave, or perhaps no wave at all, one thing is indisputable: the role of women in society during the past several decades has changed dramatically, and continues to change in a variety of ways. With Hillary Clinton's recent bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, and with Sarah Palin's selection as the Republican vice presidential nominee, it is more apparent than ever that women are seeking their due and finding their place as an integral part of American culture. In You've Come a Long Way, Baby, Lilly J. Goren and an impressive group of contributors explore the past, present, and future of women in the realms of politics, the arts, and popular culture.

My Thoughts: This book is a collection of essays that deal with women in pop culture. I admit I did not read more than half the article in here but the ones I did read we're interesting. The article I chose to write my paper on was the one on "Chick Lit". The genre itself is multifaceted and largely misunderstood. I'm playing devil's advocate here because I myself don't care for the genre but everyone is free to enjoy and read whatever books they want to. A girl is judged by her snoody counterparts if the cover of her book she's reading is bright pink and yellow? Or has women walking on the beach together? Ridiculous I say. Females as readers also have one great advantage that male readers do not....we are essentially free to read anything. We can read romance, chick lit, young adult lit, historical, biography, graphic novels and anything else with any cover because no genre is cut off from us. We can have any genre we so choose whereas male readers are much more strict in the what the cover looks like and genre they read. God forbid they read about female protagonists! Plus, the article outline women are buying and reading books at much higher rate than men...in recent generations is the first time in written history this has happened. I would recommend this collection of essays to anyone you will surely find an article that will spark your interest.

So whether you are reading comics books, trashy romance, or high literary classics all day...READ ON GIRLS!!

Characters: Not applicable.

Cover Art: Love it! It speaks for itself.

Overall: ★★★